RAWMILK28_002_LH.JPG Bottles of Claravale Farms raw milk in the dairy section of Canyon Market. State legislature passes a law that would make it harder for producers of raw milk.
Liz Hafalia/The Chronicle/San Francisco/10/26/07
** cq �2007, San Francisco Chronicle/ Liz Hafalia
MANDATORY CREDIT FOR PHOTOG AND SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE. NO SALES- MAGS OUT.

Photo: Liz Hafalia

RAWMILK28_002_LH.JPG Bottles of Claravale Farms raw milk in the...

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RAWMILK28_012_LH.JPG Olga Eber with a bottle of Claravale Farms raw milk at Canyon Market. She prefers her milk unhomogenized. State legislature passes a law that would make it harder for producers of raw milk to reach markets.
Liz Hafalia/The Chronicle/San Francisco/10/26/07
**Olga Eber cq �2007, San Francisco Chronicle/ Liz Hafalia
MANDATORY CREDIT FOR PHOTOG AND SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE. NO SALES- MAGS OUT.

Photo: Liz Hafalia

RAWMILK28_012_LH.JPG Olga Eber with a bottle of Claravale Farms raw...

Raw milk, as precious as mother's milk to about 40,000 California consumers, is likely to be tougher to find on store shelves come January because of a state law that the Legislature passed quietly this month.

For the first time, raw milk will have to meet a strict limit for coliform bacteria.

"It basically prohibits raw milk in California," said Mark McAfee, managing partner of Organic Pastures Dairy in Fresno, which produces most of the raw milk sold in California. He sees the standard as a stealth attempt to ban raw milk.

Raw milk advocates and milk safety authorities agree that most strains of coliform bacteria don't cause illness. Raw milk already is tested for the ones that do - E. coli, salmonella, listeria and campylobacter. The rest are part of the teeming culture of bacteria and enzymes that proponents believe make raw milk more healthful than pasteurized milk.

The raw milk standard was part of AB1735, a broader measure designed to align California milk standards with federal ones. There was no public debate over the bill, nor were the two raw milk dairies in California informed in advance. The bill won routine, unanimous approval, and the governor signed it Oct. 8.

The maneuver represents latest round in a struggle between raw milk's avid fans and government food safety and public health officials, who want all milk pasteurized. A Food and Drug Administration manager has compared drinking raw milk to "playing Russian roulette with your health."

California is one of just four states that allow raw milk to be sold in stores; 24 others permit sales directly from farms. The federal government requires any milk shipped across state lines to be pasteurized.

The California Department of Food and Agriculture, which inspects dairies and tests raw and pasteurized milk monthly, strongly backs the new raw milk standard.

"A coliform count by itself doesn't mean there's an organism that will make you sick," said Stephen Beam, the state agency's chief in charge of dairy food safety. But a high count is an "an indication of general sanitation and will lead you to solve a problem before it becomes a greater problem."

Several other Western states, including Oregon and Washington, have adopted the same limit, Beam said.

The food and agriculture department says the limit is reachable. About 25 percent of the raw farm milk the agency tests before pasteurization comes in below the limit of 10 coliform per milliliter, according to agency figures.

McAfee said new coliform limit will be impossible for his 350-cow dairy to meet consistently because coliform are so common in the environment and in cows.

Besides that, he argues - and many raw milk consumers agree - that beneficial bacteria are a big reason people seek out raw milk. They believe bacteria help build the immune system and reduce allergies and asthma and that the good bacteria actually inhibit the production of bad bacteria in raw milk.

The new limit, McAfee contends, "is going to make the sale of raw milk very, very difficult if not impossible in California."

Organic Pastures sells $5.8 million a year in raw milk, cream and cheese, most of it in California. About 300 stores, including many Whole Foods supermarkets and San Francisco's Rainbow Grocery, carry the milk. It's also shipped to other states labeled as pet food, which is legal.

McAfee said, and the state agriculture department's Beam confirmed, that no illness-causing bacteria have been found in milk from his dairy.

But Organic Pastures raw milk has been recalled three times over the past two years, when state health authorities believed it had caused outbreaks of food-borne illness. Two involved non-fatal E. coli, but no E. coli bacteria was found in Organic Pastures milk, McAfee and Beam said. The third case, earlier this year, did find listeria in Organic Pastures cream; McAfee said he had bought the cream from another organic dairy.

The only other dairy that sells raw milk in California stores, as well as in farmers' markets, is tiny Claravale Farms, with 55 milking cows. It recently moved from Watsonville to San Benito County and has never found pathogens in its milk.

Claravale owner Ron Garthwaite said the new limit will make his job more difficult.

"It's hard to argue against a coliform limit," he said. "It's a contaminant, and if you are doing things cleanly, it shouldn't be there. But I don't know, maybe in six months I'll be out of business."

Most raw milk consumers, who already pay more for raw milk and can't find it in most stores, still aren't aware of the new law.

Informed of it by a reporter's call earlier this week, San Francisco artist Francesca Pera called it "pretty upsetting" and predicted it would drive raw milk drinkers underground.

Pera, who lives in the Richmond District, is the organizer of a 15-member buying club to purchase milk directly from Organic Pastures, both to save money and ensure their supply. Her family drinks it "mainly for health reasons," since her 16-year-old daughter was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease a couple of years ago.

"As happens in other states, people find small farms and buy raw milk illegally through cow shares," Pera said. "That's what we could be forced to do."